Live from Ottawa

Yesterday was the exact reason why CASA exists, and why it's important for the President of the ASU to continue to play a role in external affairs.

Not only did CASA get to meet with the Leader of the Official Opposition, Michael Ignatieff, but we also got to meet with the leader of our country, Prime Minister Stephen Harper.  CASA is the only student group to have ever gotten face time with all of the party leaders to discuss the state of post-secondary education.  So for all doubters, I hope you will enjoy this blog...

My day started off with a meeting with our lawyer just down the street.  We had to go over some constitutional stuff surrounding CASA to ensure that we were up to snuff with Industry Canada as well as to bounce some ideas off of him when it comes to voting structure, board structures, etc.  He was very receptive to all of our ideas and I feel that because he is the lawyer that actually had CASA ratified under Industry Canada some 14 years ago, he knows all too well the intracacies of a student group.  

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This afternoon I attended a 'lively' question period at the House of Commons that entertained some fairly heated debate between the 4 party leaders mostly surrounding Employment Insurance benefits.  It lasted approximately 45 minutes although the real juicy bit only lasted about 10. 

After Question Period I had to run quickly over to the Confederation Building to have a meeting with Liberal MP Scott Brison.  Many of you will be familiar with Scott because he is the MP for our area, Kings-Hants.  

Pictured below are: (Left to Right) Duncan Gallant (STU), Liberal MP Scott Brison, Kyle Steele (Acadia) and Jon O'Kane (UNB Fredericton)

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I've recently returned from my two morning meetings.  The first was with Conservative MP Joy Smith and the second meeting was with Liberal Senator Jane Cordy.

The first meeting went very well.  We were delighted by the courtesy of MP Smith's aide, Kristy, who kept conversation with us while we waited to get into Ms. Smith's office as her first morning meeting ran late.  When we were greeted by MP Smith, she let us know immediately her interest in post-secondary education issues in Canada, and as a holder of 4 degrees, we were confident that she knew all too well the issues at hand.  She was very interested in the new Canada Student Grants Program (CSGP) and the Repayment Assistance Program (RAP).  While there were other important issues to be dealt with, these seemed to be the ones that perked her interest the most.  

At the end of the meeting, MP Smith asked us to write a letter to her, outlining some of the more basic facts and reasons why we think that the CSGP should be needs based as opposed to income based (as explained in the last blog). 

Pictured below are: (Left to right) Shaun Scrymgoeur (Red River), Conservative MP Joy Smith, Jody Thomas (Brock) and Kyle Steele (Acadia)

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After my first meeting with MP Cuzner this morning, I came back to our 'war room' to find out I had been placed in another meeting with Liberal MP Geoff Reagan.  Many of you may know his daughter, Caitlin, who was just recently elected as the ASU VP Student Affairs. 

Before going into this meeting though, I decided to attend Question Period in the House of Commons, which was pretty entertaining, however because you have to use a little phone device to hear what's being said on the floor, it can get a tad bit annoying.  Cameras are not allowed in the chamber when a session is in order, so I couldn't get any pictures of that. 

Question Period lasted  47 minutes, which should have given us plenty of time to get over to MP Regan's office (QP started at 2:15).  However, due to my clumsiness, I lost my coat check ticket and my ticket that I had my camera, phone and materials checked with, so I had to wait awhile until everyone else passed through.  Even then the Parlimentary Security were reluctant to give me my stuff - but they eventually did, and if any of them ever come across this on Google or something: THANK YOU!

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About a half an hour ago myself and 2 other members of CASA got back from our meeting with Liberal MP Roger Cuzner (Cape Breton - Canso).  It was a great meeting and I felt very relaxed throughout our time in his office.  There was no sitting behind a desk or anything like that - Mr. Cuzner and the rest of us sat around a coffee table in his office and enjoyed a very casual yet important conversation that involved the new Canada Student Grants Program (CSGP), the new Repayment Assistance Program (RAP) and the cost of academic materials. 

Seeing as how Mr. Cuzner is from Cape Breton (like myself) I felt like he understood much of what we were asking for because in tough economic times like these (even tougher in some cases in Cape Breton) he knows all too well the value of post-secondary education whether that be through a university or a college.

He seemed very receptive to our ideas and to that I am very thankful.  It was certainly a pleasure to talk frankly with one of the people who get to vote on how your wallet is affected when you attend Acadia - and on that note, he congratulated us on the choosing of a very fine University President in Mr. Ray Ivany.

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